Enjoy yourself as much as you like, if only you keep from sin.
St. John Bosco

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

It's Tuesday so I must be able to blog!

I noticed the last time I blogged it was last Tuesday. I do have a moment to breath on Tuesday afternoons, so I guess this can be my blogging time.

Rick is in California AGAIN. He's flown out there every week for the past several weeks. He won't need to go next week though. Poor guy. He is now 46 and jet lag takes a bigger toll on him than his younger days. He was soooo tired for his birthday. But he says he had a nice one, albeit very lowkeyed, which frankly was all he was up for. Becky made him a card. He took the kids out for breakfast while I substituted for Hannah in her RE class. She was not feeling well. She got up to sing her solo (Psalm) at Mass a but then came home because she felt so under the weather. Everybody seems to be feeling this way the last few days. Anyway, then Rick's family came over for Rosh Hashanah/Birthday. Oh I made a lemon cake in the a.m. Rick grilled, which always makes him happy! I bought him balloons. . . .We all attended the 6:00 p.m. Teen Mass they have at our parish on the 1st Sunday of the month. Hannah sang in the choir and Will played his electric guitar. It was pretty good. Afterwards Hannah and Will stayed after and helped bake cookies for the prison mininstry with the rest of the Youth Group. Josh couldn't stay because he hadn't gotten his Algebra homework done for his tutor.

Saturday, Rick and I went to see The Pearl Fishers by Bizet. It has one of the most glorious duets in it and it was beautifully sung. Shivers up and down my spine! That opera was a lot shorter than La Traviata the week before. Which was good because did I mention that Rick was really jet lagged????

Also on Saturday, Will's band, the Hypotheticals, got together for a practice. He's introduced two new members that he met at the School of Rock. One being a young lady bassist who had asked him to go to her high school Homecoming but then they decided to just spend the day together. This was good because I needed Will to babysit and so he and his little girlfriend watched the younger kids. She seems like a very nice young lady.

Hannah has been having boyfriend mother trouble, as in boyfriend's mother is crazed overprotective. I offered to talk to her for them; maybe I can calm her down??????? I can assure her Hannah will not seduce her son which I think is what she is afraid of. . . . .

All this boyfriend trouble inspired a good conversation though between Hannah and me on just what is chaste behavior in a dating relationship. It's fine to think about this before one enters into a relationship, but I'm discovering this stuff needs to be reiterated fairly often when one's child is actually in a relationship!

Hannah is very excited and nervous about going to Homecoming next week. She's somewhat intimidated by meeting all of bf's friends. She's the weirdo homeschooler while they are all smart math and science geeks (they go to a special school for smart kids!!!). She's also thinking of going to a Halloween party as a flapper, bf will be a gangster. At least that's the plan as of this a.m.

Nothing much to report on the younger kids . . . maybe I should pay more attention to them, eh??? Right now Sean and Becky are outside playing with Sean's friend. Not sure where Josh is. Will is at Led Zeppelin practice and Hannah is at work.

Sean was feeling very appreciative about things yesterday. On the way to his piano lesson he announced that he was very happy God created music. Later on in his music theory class he said the same thing to another student, "Aren't you happy God created music?" The other kid looked at him like he had suddenly sprouted antennae or something and could not even recover enough to come back with any kind of remark. I'm still chuckling at the kid's look of absolute befuddlement. Sheesh, these public school kids!

My big plan tonight, on this feast of the Holy Rosary, is to actually say a rosary instead of our usual night prayers. I'm still struggling to say the Rosary in the a.m. It might have to shift to another time of the day. . . . . stay tuned.

10th Grade - Catholic Life Community, A Beka Biology, Saxon Algebra II and Jacobs Geometry, New First Steps in Latin/Lingua Latina, The History of the Church, St. Augustine's Confessions, Augustine Came to Kent, William the Conqueror by Belloc, Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot, St. Francis of Assisi by Chesterton, The Quiet Light by de Wohl, Dante's Inferno, Joan of Arc by Mark Twain, Lepanto by Chesterton, Hamlet by Shakespeare

A Brief Introduction

My husband, Rick and I have been married for almost 22 years. We are Catholic (well, Rick is Jewish!) and love living the homeschooling lifestyle. The kids have all been diagnosed with LDs when it comes to reading and writing. These turned out to simply mean we bloom a little later than other kids do in these subjects. No big deal. But I am a big fan of vision therapy as it has helped my kids so much!

We've been pretty relaxed these past few years, most relaxed in the youngest years and gradually getting more formal as we enter high school and design our own college prep plans. This year we are starting out more formal for 6th grade. My son has expressed a desire to go to school next year in 7th grade. So to help prepare him for that he wanted to to enroll in Kolbe's homeschool program to get used to taking tests, writing more and keeping a tighter schedule. The 4th grader is following suit, just because they are used to doing much the same thing each day.

My 15 yo wants to go to college and is interested in the fields of economics, business and finance, computers and game design.

I have graduated two children from homeschool already! My oldest daughter, 19, is starting her second year at the University of Dallas, majoring in Politics. My oldest son, 18, plans to study and take CLEP tests using CollegePlus, find a parttime job, and practice and prepare for his winter audition for a music conservatory. He aspires to be a composer and performer.

So we are down to homeschooling three kids this year, 2010-2011 - a 10th grader, a 6th grader and a 3rd/4th grader. This will be our 14th year of homeschooling!